A valuable record, in miniature working models, of railway development in New Zealand, is being built up by model engineering enthusiasts in Auckland. Nowhere in the Dominion, perhaps, is there to be seen a finer collection of models of the kind than that at the home of Mr. G. T. Roberts, Kimberley Road, Epsom, Auckland, the headquarters of the R.S.R.R. Some interesting particulars of the locomotive stock represented in the collection are given in the following article.

Utility and romance appear sometimes to be as far apart as the poles, yet the pressure of utility has been largely responsible for the changes which form the very foundation of romantic history, whether it be of kings or postage stamps, of clothes or railway locomotives. It is regard for utility which has brought men through gradual processes to the wearing of drab clothes, and it is a similar need which has made the railway locomotive the monster of efficiency it is today, with little of the outer show it once possessed. The processes of development have in each case made history, though it must be admitted that some of the experiments, both in clothes and locomotives, have produced appalling results, creations which have been an affront to the eyesight and a discredit to their inventors. Still, these have been mere lapses, and they have served by contrast to add distinction where beauty has already been apparent. In clothes, for instance, one admits the beauty of the crinoline, but deplores the hideousness of the later leg-of-mutton sleeve and bustle, despite the fact that both were steps towards utility.

And so it has been with railway engines. “Josephine,” of the locomotive crinoline days, was a pretty thing, but the double “F” experiment, intended to achieve equal or greater efficiency, was the last word in hideousness—a monstrosity with scarcely a redeeming feature.